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A newly formed industry consortium has proposed to deliver advanced maritime mine countermeasures and military survey capability to the Royal Australian Navy.
Saab Australia (Saab), Leidos Australia (Leidos), SeeByte and Sonartech Atlas have teamed up to launch a bid for Defence’s SEA 1905 Tranche 1 - Maritime Mine Countermeasures Survey program.
The team is proposing to deliver equipment, training, technology and support to bolster the Royal Australian Navy’s maritime security capability.
“Saab will provide the sovereign leadership and access to local industry content to ensure the successful delivery of the SEA 1905 program, drawing on our decades of in-country experience providing Australian defence with robust and reliable military software and hardware, combined with complex systems integration expertise and proven global capability,” Saab Australia managing director Andy Keough said.
Leidos Australia chief executive Paul Chase said the company would leverage its experience delivering military survey capability in the United States and its support for the delivery of rapid environmental assessment capability under SEA 1770.
“The experience and lessons from Leidos’ primed project, SEA 1770, will be a key factor in the Rapid Environmental Assessment Survey capability that Leidos will provide,” Chase said.
As part of this new collaboration for SEA 1905, Leidos will also be tasked with supporting the “evergreening roadmap” for autonomy, leveraging both its autonomous and cyber security offering.
Meanwhile, SeeByte is proposing its open modular architecture Mission Management System (MMS), which leverages the company’s SeeTrack, Neptune, and Automatic Target Recognition (ATR) products.
SeeByte’s product suite is currently in service with the United Kingdom, US and NATO forces.
“This collaborative approach brings together a best-of-breed solution to satisfy the Commonwealth’s needs for SEA1905,” SeeByte CEO Chris Haworth said.
“It also enables the development of new technologies and integration of existing ones as required – all whilst working with Australian industry.”
The SeeByte MMS offering is billed as a comprehensive and highly capable system, which is already integrated to, and interoperable with a broad range of Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) vehicles and sensor types from a range of manufacturers.
The MMS is also supported by a “software development kit”, which can support the delivery of an evergreening solution, which can be indigenously supported by Australian industry, academia and defence scientific laboratories.
Sonartech Atlas’ role is tipped to involve leveraging the Atlas Elektronik Group’s experience in developing and delivering mine warfare systems.
“This includes autonomous MCM capabilities that have been delivered globally, including to the RAN,” Peter Campbell, managing director at Sonartech Atlas, said.
“Our company will build on the existing Australian presence and look to develop sovereign capability through this program.”
